6-foot boa constrictor found living in family's attic

ENGLEWOOD (FOX 13) - Bob van der Herchen's son often complained about hearing noises in the attic. Bob just assumed it was a rat or squirrel. That is, until he spotted something moving -- or slithering -- through a gap in the ceiling.

"I see it. And it's about this big around," van der Herchen said, forming a circle with his hands. "And, I could only see about this much of it."

Snake trapper Mark Lampart came to the rescue. Holding 18 feet of PVC pipe, he and Bob tried the coax the serpent out.

"The snake got over the PVC pipe and was not moving," van der Herchen recalled.

In the process, they discovered skin-crawling evidence that this snake was no stranger to the Englewood neighborhood: A long piece of skin shed from the snake.

"When he pulled that snake skin out, I said, 'That's a sign he must have been there for quite a while,'" van der Herchen said

After two and a half hours, Mark captured the culprit: A 6-foot-long boa constrictor.

"Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you," van der Herchen said in a video recorded after the recovery.

"I'm glad we could get it. It was very difficult," replied Lampart.

Van der Herchen thinks it might've been someone's pet that happened to slither inside from an overgrown tree branch.

"I thought it was bigger than 6 feet," he said. "And when I was trying to take picture of it, the snake went, 'hiss'."

With his home now snake-free, all van der Herchen can do is laugh and recite those three famous words, "Only in Florida."

As for that snake, it was able to be taken away alive. Lampart plans to find a home for it -- one more suitable than inside someone's attic.